The UN Secretary-General’s 2016 Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism recommends that “…each Member State should consider developing a national plan of action to prevent violent extremism which sets national priorities for addressing the local drivers of violent extremism” (para 44).

By the end of 2019, more than a dozen governments had published national action plans including Albania, Burkina Faso, Denmark, Finland, France, Kenya, Kosovo, Mali, Montenegro, Morocco, Nigeria, Norway, Somalia and Switzerland. Several more are developing national strategies, policy frameworks and action plans.

This essay outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats emerging from this new legislative momentum. National action plans are not easily comparable–some follow UN guidelines more than others, many incorporate existing national legislation and all intend to respond to the national context.